November

 I wanted to get a couple of quick monthly recaps up before the end of the year!

The kids began their November with the student fall retreat. I love the sweet relationships they have been able to cultivate in our student ministry.

Josh officiated his cousin's wedding up near Richmond, VA so we got to spend a couple some quality time with his parents and mom's siblings which has NEVER happened! I wish I had more pictures. But these will have to do. It was a beautiful ceremony. COLD, but so beautiful.

Josh has officially been blessed with enough freebie tickets to take each of his kids to Cameron Stadium to watch a Duke Men's Basketball game. Jude has been waiting patiently and his time finally came!

Alethia had a fun birthday party for a friend and I'm so glad the mama shared this photo!

And we can't forget Thanksgiving! It was the Via's year so we drove up to Josh's parents house, with two extra little loves in tow. Evie LOVED helping Meme get ready for our Thanksgiving feast. And then the next day our kids got to help begin Christmas decorating, along with some other cousins.

The Little Visitors

 Josh's sister and husband reached out to us to see if we could host their 4 littles for a week and of course we said yes! It was such a full week of activity! The boys literally didn't stop the entire week. I'm just gonna photo dump the week because I feel that adequately describes the vibe from the whole week.

The boys (Cai) created some elaborate game that occupied their time. Don't ask me how to play, just enjoy the pictures of them having a blast!

2024 Solar Eclipse - No Fancy Glasses Needed

I was so excited for the Solar Eclipse.

The only problem is that I didn't have the proper glasses, but we did what we always do in these kinds of situations...we improvised!

First, we scavenged around the house to find as many pairs of sunglasses as we could.

Then we looked up how to make a pinhole projector out of a cereal box see the reflection of the eclipse.

Another way we viewed the eclipse, which was actually our favorite way, was to fill up a bucket of water. That's it. All you have to do is find the reflection of the sun in the water and wait for the wind to stop and you can clearly see the progression of the moon over the sun!

The last thing we tried was pushing the tip of a pencil through a paper plate and holding it up to the sun. The sun shines through and then you can see it on the ground, another paper plate, or other surface.

 ***SIDE NOTE***

We later found our eclipse glasses from 2017 in our memory jar, 

so now we have them ready for the next one!

December

 December was full of all things Christmas. From Jingle Jam at church at church to ginger bread decorating to Christmas parades and Christmas lights. It was full and it was fun. We even had a visit from the Hambrick boys and then they took Jude and Zeke back with them for a couple days. They were EXHAUSTED after their adventures.

I can't forget to mention Zeke ran an all-nighter with his buddy Garrison. He clocked nearly 43 miles total!

We had a quiet Christmas morning here at our own home and then my parents joined us in the afternoon for dinner and togetherness. The next morning we packed up and headed to join the Via family in VA for our next Christmas.

November

 November was spent getting into the Christmas Spirit. Lots of baking and decorating. And we had another birthday! Alethia turned 15! We ended the month up in Maryland with my family to celebrate Thanksgiving. While we were there Deedee took us downtown Fredrick to look at the boats that were all lit up for the holidays. I felt like I was walking around in a Hallmark movie!

I also got the chance to do a concert with our new friends the McCray Brothers as they did a song release worship night. I have no pictures but I'll never forget that powerful night.